THE book of Genesis commences with two accounts of creation. The first declares unmistakably the goodness and perfection of creation, stating (Gen. 1:31), "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," thereby ascribing all effect to one good cause or creator, God.
The second account, beginning with the words, "But there went up a mist from the earth" (2:6), describes a mythical theory of creation by the Lord God— a totally different concept. In this account the Lord God is supposed to have created a man from the dust of the ground and, subsequently, a woman from a rib of the man. This is clearly a contradiction of the first record, in which it is stated that God made man in His likeness. God, according to the Bible, is Spirit and Truth and Love and never can be described physically or materially.
The first account is a satisfying explanation of God and His work, which He pronounced as wholly good and without any evil at all. The second account describes a material man believed to be subject to limitations, sins, and suffering. Generations of mankind, even while accepting Scriptural authority for the first record of creation, have largely overlooked or have failed to grasp its significance as a wholly spiritual record. But they have accepted the second, or material, record as descriptive of their own origin and nature.
